Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium (2007)

Do you want to see a movie that makes you wish you were a kid again? Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium is the film to see if you do.

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Wild Hogs (2007)

What will you do when you have your midlife crisis? The members of the suburban Wild Hogs "gang" decided to take a motorcycle road trip from Cincinnati, Ohio, to the U.S. Pacific coast.

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Cloverfield (2008)

Cloverfield is much more than a monster movie, Godzilla style. It's what you might see if you if you picked up a video camera that someone was holding throughout the events that took place.

I really enjoyed this movie, even though I found one major flaw in it. There is no way in hell that the monster could have lived after being the target of missiles and bombs. That ammo is designed to go through steel and I'd don't think any living creature has a hide that strong.

The monster wasn't the scariest part of the movie. He was just lumbering around, destroying things, and eating random people on the fly. The scariest part were the critters falling off its body. I don't know what the critters were doing to the people, but it didn't look like they were playing. Thankfully, we didn't see anyone getting chomped on.

If you want realism in a horror flick, I highly recommend you watch Cloverfield.

It stars Lizzy Caplan, Jessica Lucas, T.J. Miller, Michael Stahl-David, Mike Vogel and Odette Yustman. Here's a 5-minute clip from the movie:

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The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising (2007)

My son persuaded me to watch The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising with him. It was a load of crap, in my humble opinion.

Will Stanton, on his 14th birthday, finds out he is "the seeker" and has to collect 6 signs before "the rider" unleashes darkness on the world.

What the movie failed to explain, until near the end, is why Will was the seeker in the first place and why things didn't start happening until he was 14.

Judging by the reviews at IMDB and comparing the movie with the plot of the book series started over 40 years ago, I think I'm correct in my opinion that this movie isn't worth the time to watch it.

The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising stars Alexander Ludwig, Christopher Eccleston and a bunch of other forgettable actors. Here's a trailer:

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The Da Vinci Code (2006)

The Da Vinci Code is an excellent film. The religious content could be replaced with just about anything else and it would still be entertaining. I know a lot of people wouldn't agree with me, but I don't care. This movie (and the book it was based on) isn't about religion; it's about power and the people who use power to suppress information that shouldn't be suppressed.

In this story, Professor Langdon is lured into a treasure hunt for the most valuable treasure in the world: The Holy Grail. It wasn't his choice — the French government, along with some powerful people in the Catholic church, implicated him in murder. Anyway, this is as far as I'll go with it, lest I spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it yet.

The Da Vinci Code stars Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou, Ian McKellen, Jean Reno, Paul Bettany and Alfred Molina. Here's a clip of the final scenes in the movie with some awesome background music.

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Shrek (2001)

Shrek is the animated feature that set a new standard for CGI-driven animated movies. It won an Oscar in 2002 for "Best Animated Feature", as well as other awards and a whole slew of nominations.

In this film, Shrek gets invaded by fairly tale creatures after Lord Farquaad banishes them from the kingdom of Duloc. To fix the problem, Shrek sets out to rescue Princess Fiona from a fiery dragon so that she can wed Lord Farquaad. Along the way, he picks up an unwanted companion (Donkey). On the way back, he falls in love with Princess Fiona, who turns into an ogre herself during the night. The rest of the story is animation history.

Shrek stars the voices of Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, John Lithgow and many, many more. Here's the trailer:

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Tron (1982)

I have "Tron" on DVD. I saw it when it first came out in the theaters and was in awe of the special effects. Special effects that, by today's standards, would be considered lame. It's one of the movies that first got me hooked on science fiction movies and television series.

A hacker (Jeff Bridges) is digitized and abducted into the world of a computer by the MCP (Master Control Program) and forced to participate in gladiatorial games where his only chance of escape is with the help of a heroic security program called "Tron" (Bruce Boxleitner). Every character is played twice in this movie, but David Warner gets triple duty as the voice of the MCP.

"Tron" stars Jeff Bridges, Bruce Boxleitner, David Warner, Cindy Morgan and more. Here's a fan trailer and a fan music video which uses a song by Eiffel 65 called "Blue (Da Ba Dee)". The last one seems rather fitting.

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